Off The Tracks with Marquis Hawkes

So how did I learn to cope, and manage to get to the most well balanced mental states I’ve ever known in my entire life? The bedrock of my family is the foundation of everything I do. I know that everything to do with my music career could go to the dogs, but I still have a very supportive wife, and two loving daughters, and managing to hold that together is, to me, a bigger success than anything which could happen to me in music.

I remember at some point when my girls were away visiting other family members and I was home alone, feeling a bit down that my career wasn’t progressing in the way I had hoped. But looking at the pictures on the walls of our apartment, seeing the faces of my wife, my daughters, I realized, this was the real success in life, and that success is happiness, being happy in your own skin and with what you wake up to every day.

Additionally, I have some very good friends, some inside the music scene, but also quite a few who are outside of it, and I feel having that contact with the world outside of clubs and records vitally important. The other thing which keeps me feeling positive is the thought of longevity and leaving a legacy. I already have a body of work which spans almost two decades, and I’m pretty sure that legacy will continue to span another two, so on a purely artistic level, I’m sure my mark on the world will be left and that potentially I will have imprinted the world with something of artistic value.

And the final thing which gives me joy is the experience of playing somewhere and seeing the people really enjoying it, on a very personal and intimate level. That is something which you are never going to really be able to truly convey outside of the real experience. You had to be there!